Exemplar-based natural language processing

ABSTRACT

Systems and processes for exemplar-based natural language processing are provided. In one example process, a first text phrase can be received. It can be determined whether editing the first text phrase to match a second text phrase requires one or more of inserting, deleting, and substituting a word of the first text phrase. In response to determining that editing the first text phrase to match the second text phrase requires one or more of inserting, deleting, and substituting a word of the first text phrase, one or more of an insertion cost, a deletion cost, and a substitution cost can be determined. A semantic edit distance between the first text phrase and the second text phrase in a semantic space can be determined based on one or more of the insertion cost, the deletion cost, and the substitution cost.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Ser. No.62/005,786, filed on May 30, 2014, entitled EXEMPLAR-BASED NATURALLANGUAGE PROCESSING, which is hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety for all purposes.

FIELD

This relates generally to natural language processing and, morespecifically, to exemplar-based natural language processing.

BACKGROUND

Natural language input can be written or spoken input (e.g., speech ortext) that is in a natural form used by a person when speaking orwriting to another person. Natural language input can permit a user toeasily interact with an electronic device using well-known language. Forexample, a virtual assistant operating on an electronic device canenable a user to access various services of the electronic devicethrough natural language input to the virtual assistant. The virtualassistant can perform natural language processing on the naturallanguage input to determine user intent from the natural language input.The determined user intent can then be operationalized into tasks thatare executed by the virtual assistant.

Natural language processing can be implemented by parsing andrecognizing individual words or groups of words in the natural languageinput to determine the user intent associated with the input. However,due to the complex and shifting “rules” of human natural language, theoverall meaning of a natural language input can be missed by recognizingsmall portions of natural language input separately. In addition, agiven user intent can be expressed in many unanticipated ways usingnatural language. According, determining user intent by recognizingsmall portions of natural language input separately can yield inaccurateor incomplete results.

SUMMARY

Systems and processes for exemplar-based natural language processing areprovided. In one example process, a first text phrase can be received.It can be determined whether editing the first text phrase to match asecond text phrase requires one or more of inserting a first word intothe first text phrase, deleting a second word from the first textphrase, and substituting a third word of the first text phrase with afourth word. The second text phrase can include the first word, thefirst text phrase can include the second word, and the second textphrase can include the fourth word. In response to determining thatediting the first text phrase to match the second text phrase requiresone or more of inserting the first word into the first text phrase,deleting the second word from the first text phrase, and substitutingthe third word of the first text phrase with the fourth word, one ormore of an insertion cost, a deletion cost, and a substitution cost canbe determined. It can be determined, based on the one or more of theinsertion cost, the deletion cost, and the substitution cost, a semanticedit distance between the first text phrase and the second text phrasein a semantic space. A degree of semantic similarity between the firsttext phrase and the second text phrase can be based on the semantic editdistance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the comparison of an example first text phrase to anexample second text phrase for exemplar-based natural languageprocessing according to various examples.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary process for exemplar-based naturallanguage processing according to various examples.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary process for exemplar-based naturallanguage processing according to various examples.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary process for exemplar-based naturallanguage processing of speech according to various examples.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplar semantic space according to variousexamples.

FIG. 6 illustrates a centroid position of an exemplar text phrase in asemantic space according to various examples.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary system and environment for carrying outaspects of exemplar-based natural language processing according tovarious examples.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary user device for carrying out aspects ofexemplar-based natural language processing according to variousexamples.

FIG. 9 illustrates a functional block diagram of an exemplary electronicdevice according to various examples.

FIG. 10 illustrates a functional block diagram of an exemplaryelectronic device according to various examples.

FIG. 11 illustrates a functional block diagram of an exemplaryelectronic device according to various examples.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of examples, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings in which it is shown by way of illustrationspecific examples that can be practiced. It is to be understood thatother examples can be used and structural changes can be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the various examples.

The present disclosure relates to exemplar-based natural languageprocessing. According to various examples described herein,exemplar-based natural language processing can be used to determine auser intent associated with an input text phrase by matching the inputtext phrase to a set of exemplar text phrases that are each associatedwith a predetermined intent. For example, the exemplar text phrase,“Where can I get money?” can be associated with the predetermined intentof finding a bank or an automatic teller machine (ATM). The input textphrase, “Where can I get some cash?” can be matched to the exemplar textphrase. Thus, the user intent associated with the input text phrase canbe determined to be similar or identical to the predetermined intentassociated with the exemplar text phrase.

In one example process, an input text phrase can be matched to theexemplar-text phrase by determining a degree of semantic similaritybetween the input text phrase and the exemplar text phrase. In thisexample, the input text phrase can be received. It can be determinedwhether editing the input text phrase to match an exemplar text phraserequires one or more of inserting a first word into the input textphrase, deleting a second word from the input text phrase, andsubstituting a third word of the input text phrase with a fourth word.The exemplar text phrase can include the first word, the input textphrase can include the second word, and the exemplar text phrase caninclude the fourth word. In response to determining that editing theinput text phrase to match the exemplar text phrase requires one or moreof inserting the first word into the input text phrase, deleting thesecond word from the input text phrase, and substituting the third wordof the input text phrase with the fourth word, one or more of aninsertion cost, a deletion cost, and a substitution cost can bedetermined. A semantic edit distance between the input text phrase andthe exemplar text phrase in a semantic space can be determined based onone or more of the insertion cost, the deletion cost, and thesubstitution cost. The degree of semantic similarity between the inputtext phrase and the exemplar text phrase can be based on the semanticedit distance.

1. Exemplar-Based Natural Language Processes

FIG. 1 illustrates the comparison of first text phrase 102 to secondtext phrase 104 for exemplar-based natural language processing accordingto various examples. FIG. 2 illustrates process 200 for exemplar-basednatural language processing according to various examples. Process 200,can be described with simultaneous reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

At block 202 of process 200, first text phrase 102 can be received.First text phrase can be natural language text and can include a stringof words. In this example, as shown in FIG. 1, first text phrase 102 caninclude the question, “You got any good stories to tell?” In otherexamples, the first text phrase can be any request, statement,exclamation, question, or the like. In some examples, the first textphrase can be less than 150 characters. First text phrase 102 caninclude a first intent that can be determined using exemplar-basednatural language processing.

First text phrase 102 can be received via an interface of a user device(e.g., touch screen 846 or other input/control devices 848 of userdevice 702, described below). The interface can be any suitable devicefor inputting text. For example, the interface can be a keyboard/keypad,a touch screen implementing a virtual keyboard or a handwritingrecognition interface, a remote control (e.g., television remotecontrol), a scroll wheel interface, or the like. In some examples, firsttext phrase 102 can be received from a speech-to-text converter. Inthese examples, at least a portion of a received speech input can betranscribed into text via the speech-to-text converter. First textphrase 102 can include the transcribed text.

At blocks 204, 206, and 208 of process 200, it can be determined whetherediting first text phrase 102 to match second text phrase 104 requiresone or more of: a) inserting a first word into the first text phrase, b)deleting a second word from the first text phrase, and c) substituting athird word of the first text phrase with a fourth word. Second textphrase 104 can include the first word, first text phrase 102 can includethe second word, and second text phrase 104 can include the fourth word.

Second text phrase 104 can be a predetermined text phrase. For example,second text phrase 104 can be an exemplar text phrase stored on the userdevice or a remote system and can be associated with a predeterminedintent and/or a predetermined task to be performed. In this example,second text phrase 104 can be the predetermined question, “Do you haveany interesting stories?” In this example, second text phrase 104 can beassociated with the predetermined intent of requesting a story and/orthe predetermined task of retrieving a story. In other examples, secondtext phrase 104 can be any predetermined natural language text thatincludes a string of words. Like first text phrase 102, second textphrase 104 can be any request, statement, exclamation, question or thelike. In some cases, second text phrase 104 can also be less than 150characters.

First text phrase 102 can be compared to second text phrase 104 todetermine the types of edits that would be required in order for firsttext phrase 102 to match with second text phrase. In this example,second text phrase 104 can include first word “do” 106 for which firsttext phrase 102 does not include any corresponding word. Thus, at block204, it can be determined that editing first text phrase 102 to matchsecond text phrase 104 would require inserting first word “do” 106 intofirst text phrase 102.

In addition, first text phrase 102 can include second word “to” 108 forwhich second text phrase 104 does not include any corresponding word.Further, in this example, first text phrase 102 can include the word“tell” 110 for which second text phrase 104 does not include anycorresponding word. Thus, at block 206, it can be determined thatediting first text phrase 102 to match second text phrase 104 wouldrequire deleting second word 108 “to” and the word “tell” 110 from firsttext phrase 102.

Further, first text phrase 102 can include third word “got” 112 that isdifferent from corresponding fourth word “have” 114 of second textphrase 104. Similarly, first text phrase 102 can include the word “good”116 that is different from corresponding word “interesting” 118 ofsecond text phrase 104. Thus, at block 208, it can be determined thatediting first text phrase 102 to match second text phrase 104 wouldrequire substituting third word “got” 112 with fourth word “have” 114and substituting the word “good” 116 with the word “interesting” 118.

At block 210 of process 200, an insertion cost associated with insertingfirst word “do” 106 into first text phrase 102 can be determined inresponse to determining that editing first text phrase 102 to matchsecond text phrase 104 requires inserting first word “do” 106 into firsttext phrase 102. The insertion cost can be determined based on a firstpredetermined semantic cost and a salience of the first word. Forexample, the insertion cost, cost_(ins)(“do”)=i*salience(“do”), where idenotes the first predetermined semantic cost and salience(“do”) denotesthe salience of the word “do.” Functions for deriving the salience of agiven word, salience(w), are explained in greater detail below.

At block 212 of process 200, a first deletion cost associated withdeleting second word “to” 108 from first text phrase 102 can bedetermined in response to determining that editing first text phrase 102to match second text phrase 104 requires deleting second word “to” 108from first text phrase 102. The first deletion cost can be determinedbased on a second predetermined semantic cost and a salience of secondword “to” 106. For example, the first deletion cost,cost_(del)(“to”)=d*salience(“to”), where d denotes the secondpredetermined semantic cost and salience(“to”) denotes the salience ofthe word “to.” In some examples, the first predetermined semantic costis greater than the second predetermined semantic cost. This can bebecause inserting an additional word to a text phrase typically changesthe semantics of the text phrase significantly. Therefore, the costassociated with inserting a word should be greater than the costassociated with deleting a word.

Further, a second deletion cost associated with deleting the word “tell”110 from first text phrase 102 can be determined in response todetermining that editing first text phrase 102 to match second textphrase 104 requires deleting the word “tell” 110 from first text phrase102. The second deletion cost can be determined in a similar oridentical manner as the first deletion cost. For example, the seconddeletion cost, cost_(del)(“tell”)=d*salience(“tell”), wheresalience(“tell”) denotes the salience of the word ‘tell.”

At block 214 of process 200, a first substitution cost associated withsubstituting third word “got” 112 of first text phrase 102 with fourthword “have” 114 can be determined in response to determining thatediting first text phrase 102 to match second text phrase 104 requiressubstituting third word “got” 112 of first text phrase 102 with fourthword “have” 114. The first substitution cost can be determined based ona salience of third word “got” 112, a salience of fourth word “have”114, a semantic similarity between third word “got” 112 and fourth word“have” 114 in a semantic space, the first predetermined semantic cost,and the second predetermined semantic cost. For example, the firstsubstitution cost:

cost_(sub)(“got”,“have”)=(cost_(del)(“got”)+cost_(ins)(“have”))(1−similarity(“got”,“have”))

where cost_(del)(“got”) denotes the deletion cost associated withdeleting third word “got” 112 from first phrase 102, cost_(ins)(“have”)denotes the insertion cost associated with inserting fourth word “have”114 into first phrase 102, and similarity(“got”, “have”) denotes thesemantic similarity between third word “got” 112 and fourth word “have”114. Cost_(del)(“got”) can be determined in a similar or identicalmanner as cost_(del)(“tell”) described above at block 212 and can bebased on the second predetermined semantic cost and the salience ofthird word “got” 112. Cost_(ins)(“have”) can be determined in a similaror identical manner as cost_(ins)(“do”) described above at block 210 andcan be based on the first predetermined semantic cost and the salienceof fourth word “have” 114. A detailed description for determining thesemantic similarity between two words (e.g., “got” and “have”) in asemantic space is provided below.

Further, a second substitution cost associated with substituting theword “good” 116 of first text phrase 102 with the word “interesting” 118is determined in response to determining that editing first text phrase102 to match second text phrase 104 requires substituting the word“good” 116 of first text phrase 102 with the word “interesting” 118. Thesecond substitution cost can be determined in a similar or identicalmanner as the first substitution cost. For example, the secondsubstitution cost:

cost_(sub)(“good”,“interesting”)=(cost_(del)(“got”)+cost_(ins)(“have”))(1−similarity(“got”,“have”))

It should be recognized that various modifications can be made fordetermining the insertion cost, the deletion cost, and the substitutioncost. For example, various weighting factors can be included to adjustthe relative cost associated with inserting, deleting, and substituting.

At block 216 of process 200, a semantic edit distance between first textphrase 102 and second text phrase 104 in a semantic space can bedetermined. The semantic edit distance can be determined based on one ormore of the insertion cost, the deletion cost, and the substitution costdetermined at blocks 210, 212, and 214. For example, the semantic editdistance can be a linear combination of the insertion cost, the firstdeletion cost, the second deletion cost, the first substitution cost,and the second substitution cost. Appropriate weighting factors can beapplied to the various costs in determining the semantic edit distance.Further, the semantic space can be the same semantic space used todetermine the semantic similarity between two words, described below.

At block 218 of process 200, a centroid distance between a centroidposition of first text phrase 102 in the semantic space and a centroidposition of second text phrase 104 in the semantic space can bedetermined. The semantic space can be the same semantic space used todetermine semantic similarity between third word 112 and fourth word 114at block 214. The centroid position of a text phrase can be determinedbased on the semantic position of one or more words of the text phrasein the semantic space. Further, the centroid position of the text phrasecan be determined based on a salience of one or more words of the textphrase. For example, the centroid position of first text phrase 102 canbe determined based on a weighted semantic position of one or more wordsof first text phrase 102 in the semantic space where the semanticposition of the one or more words of first text phrase 102 is weightedby a salience of the one or more words of first text phrase 102.Additional details for determining centroid position of a text phraseare provided below.

At block 220 of process 200, a degree of semantic similarity betweenfirst text phrase 102 and second text phrase 104 can be determined. Insome examples, the degree of semantic similarity between first textphrase 102 and second text phrase 104 can be determined based on thesemantic edit distance of block 216 and/or the centroid distance ofblock 218. In one example, the degree of semantic similarity betweenfirst text phrase 102 and second text phrase 104 can be based on alinear combination of the semantic edit distance and the centroiddistance. Various weighting factors can be applied to the linearcombination of the semantic edit distance and the centroid distance.

At block 222 of process 200, a first intent associated with first textphrase 102 can be determined based on the degree of semantic similarity.For example, blocks 204 through 220 can be repeated to determine thedegree of semantic similarity between first text phrase 102 and aplurality of text phrases. The plurality of text phrases can include thesecond text phrase. Further, the plurality of text phrases can beassociated with a plurality of predetermined intents. In one example, itcan be determined at block 222 that first text phrase 102 is mostsemantically similar to second text phrase 104 among the plurality oftext phrases. In particular, the degree of semantic similarity can bebased on the semantic edit distance and it can be determined that secondtext phrase 104 is associated with the lowest semantic edit distanceamong the plurality of text phrase. In this example, the first intentcan be determined to be similar or identical to the predetermined intentassociated with second text phrase 104. Specifically, the first intentcan be determined to be similar or identical to the predetermined intentof requesting a story.

At block 224 of process 200, one or more tasks associated with firsttext phrase 102 can be performed based on the first intent. For example,the tasks of searching for a story on the Internet or a database anddisplaying a retrieved story can be performed based on the first intentof requesting a story.

Although blocks 202 through 224 of process 200 are shown in a particularorder in FIG. 2, it should be appreciated that these blocks can beperformed in any order. For instance, in some examples, block 218 can beperformed prior to block 216. In addition, although process 200 isdescribed above with reference to blocks 202 through 224, it should beappreciated that in some cases, process 200 can include additionalblocks. For instance, in some examples, process 200 can includedetermining whether first text phrase 102 includes a fifth word thatsecond text phrase 104 does not include and determining whether apredetermined list of keywords includes the fifth word. Thepredetermined list of keywords can include words that are highly salientand thus strongly influence the semantics of a given text phrase. Forexample, the predetermined list of keywords can include profane words.Accordingly, the degree of semantic similarity at block 220 can be basedon whether first text phrase 102 includes a fifth word that second textphrase 104 does not include and whether a predetermined list of keywordsincludes the fifth word. For example, the degree of semantic similaritybetween first text phrase 102 and second text phrase 104 can bedetermined to be poor in response to determining that first text phrase102 includes a profane word that second text phrase 104 does not includeand a predetermined list of keywords includes the profane word.

Further, one or more blocks of process 200 can be optional and/or one ormore blocks of process 200 can be combined. For instance, in someexamples, block 218 of determining a centroid distance can be optional.In other examples, blocks 222 and 224 of determining a first intent andperforming one or more tasks can be optional.

In some examples, blocks 204, 206, and 208 of process 200 can becombined. In these examples, it can be determined whether editing firsttext phrase 102 to match second text phrase 104 requires one or more of:a) inserting a first word into the first text phrase, b) deleting asecond word from the first text phrase, and c) substituting a third wordof the first text phrase with a fourth word. In other examples, blocks210, 212, and 214 can be combined. In these examples, in response todetermining that editing the first text phrase to match the second textphrase requires one or more of inserting the first word into the firsttext phrase, deleting the second word from the first text phrase, andsubstituting the third word of the first text phrase with the fourthword, one or more of an insertion cost, a deletion cost, and asubstitution cost can be determined.

FIG. 3 illustrates process 300 for exemplar-based natural languageprocessing according to various examples. Process 300 can be describedwith simultaneous reference to FIGS. 1 and 3.

At block 302 of process 300, first text phrase 102 can be received.Block 302 can be similar or identical to block 202 of process 200described above.

At block 304 of process 300, one or more word-level differences of firsttext phrase 102 with respect to second text phrase 104 can bedetermined. Determining the one or more word-level differences caninclude comparing the words of first text phrase 102 to the words ofsecond text phrase 104. Block 304 can be similar or identical to anycombination of block 204, 206, and 208 of process 200. The one or moreword-level differences can include one or more of a first word-leveldifference, a second word-level difference, and a third word-leveldifference.

A first word-level difference can comprise second text phrase 104including a first word 106 that does not correspond to any word of firsttext phrase 102. For example, first word “do” 106 of second text phrase104 does not correspond to any word of first text phrase 102. Thus, theabsence of first word “do” 106 in first text phrase 102 can bedetermined to be a first word-level difference. Determining a firstword-level difference can be similar or identical to determined whetherediting first text phrase 102 to match second text phrase 104 wouldrequire inserting first word 106 into first text phrase 102, asdescribed above in block 204 of process 200.

A second word-level difference can comprise first text phrase 102including a second word 108 that does not correspond to any word ofsecond text phrase 104. For example, second word “to” 108 of first textphrase 102 does not correspond to any word of second text phrase 104.Similarly, the word “tell” 110 of first text phrase 102 does notcorrespond to any word of second text phrase 104. Thus, second word “to”and/or the word “tell” of first text phrase 102 can be determined to besecond word-level differences. Determining a second word-leveldifference can be similar or identical to determining whether editingfirst text phrase 102 to match second text phrase 104 would requiredeleting second word 108 and/or word 110 from first text phrase 102, asdescribed above in block 206 of process 200.

A third word-level difference can comprise first text phrase 102including third word 112 that is different from a corresponding fourthword 114 of second text phrase 104. For example, third word “got” 112 offirst text phrase 102 can be different from corresponding fourth word“have” 114 of second text phrase 104. Similarly, the word “good” 116 offirst text phrase 102 can be different from the corresponding word“interesting” 118 of second text phrase 104. Thus, third word “got”and/or the word “good” of first text phrase 102 can be determined to bethird word-level differences. Determining a second word-level differencecan be similar or identical to determining whether editing first textphrase 102 to match second text phrase 104 would require substitutingthird word 112 with fourth word 114 and/or substituting word 116 withword 118, as described above in block 208 of process 200.

At block 306, in response to determining that the one or more word-leveldifferences include the first word-level difference, a first semanticcost associated with the first word-level difference can be determined.The first semantic cost can be based on a first predetermined semanticcost and the salience of the first word. The first semantic cost can besimilar or identical to the insertion cost described above in block 210of process 200 and can be determined in a similar or identical manner asthe insertion cost.

At block 308 of process 300, in response to determining that the one ormore word-level differences include the second word-level difference, asecond semantic cost associated with the second word-level differencecan be determined. The second semantic cost can be based on a secondpredetermined semantic cost and the salience of the second word. Thesecond semantic cost can be similar or identical to the deletion costdescribed above in block 212 of process 200 and can be determined in asimilar or identical manner as the deletion cost.

At block 310 of process 300, in response to determining that the one ormore word-level differences include the third word-level difference, athird semantic cost associated with the third word-level difference canbe determined. The third semantic cost can be based on the salience ofthe third word, the salience of the fourth word, the semantic similaritybetween the third word and the fourth word, a first predeterminedsemantic cost, and a second predetermined semantic cost. The thirdsemantic cost can be similar or identical to the substitution costdescribed above in block 214 of process 200 and can be determined in asimilar or identical manner as the substitution cost.

At block 312 of process 300, a total semantic cost associated with theone or more word-level differences can be based on the first semanticcost, the second semantic cost, and the third semantic cost. The totalsemantic cost can be determined in a similar or identical manner as thesemantic edit distance described above in block 216 of process 200. Forexample, the total semantic cost can be equal to the linear combinationof the first semantic cost, the second semantic cost, and the thirdsemantic cost. As described above, the first semantic cost, the secondsemantic cost, and the third semantic cost can be based on one or moreof a salience of the first word, a salience of the second word, asalience of the third word, a salience of the fourth word, and asemantic similarity between the third word and the fourth word in asemantic space.

At block 314 of process 300, a centroid distance between a centroidposition of first text phrase 102 in the semantic space and a centroidposition of second text phrase 104 in the semantic space can bedetermined. Block 314 can be similar or identical to block 218 ofprocess 200 described above.

At block 316 of process 300, a degree of semantic similarity betweenfirst text phrase 102 and second text phrase 104 can be based on thetotal semantic cost and/or the centroid distance. For example, thedegree of semantic similarity can be based on a linear combination ofthe total semantic cost and the centroid distance. Block 316 can besimilar or identical to block 220 of process 200 described above.

At block 318 of process 300, a first intent associated with first textphrase 102 can be determined based on the degree of semantic similarity.Block 318 can be similar or identical to block 222 of process 200described above.

At block 320 of process 300, one or more tasks associated with firsttext phrase 102 can be performed based on the first intent. Block 320can be similar or identical to block 224 of process 200 described above.

Although blocks 302 through 320 of process 300 are shown in a particularorder in FIG. 3, it should be appreciated that these blocks can beperformed in any order and that some blocks can be combined. Further,one or more blocks of process 200 can be optional and/or one or moreadditional blocks can be included.

In some examples, process 300 can further include determining whetherfirst text phrase 102 includes a fifth word that second text phrase 104does not include and determining whether a predetermined list ofkeywords includes the fifth word. The degree of semantic similaritybetween first text phrase 102 and second text phrase can be based onwhether first text phrase 102 includes a fifth word that second textphrase 104 does not include and whether a predetermined list of keywordsincludes the fifth word.

FIG. 4 illustrates process 400 for exemplar-based natural languageprocessing of speech according to various examples. Exemplar-basednatural language processing can be particularly advantageous forprocessing speech input for user intent. This can be because ofexemplar-based natural language processing is less sensitive to theword-level errors that can typically be associated with speech-to-textconversion.

At block 402 of process 400, an input text phrase can be obtained from areceived speech input. For example, the input text phrase can beobtained by performing speech-to-text conversion on the received speechinput. Speech-to-text conversion can be performing using automaticspeech recognition methods known in the art. The received speech inputand the input text phrase can be in natural language form. The inputtext phrase can be similar or identical to first text phrase describedabove at block 302 of process 300.

At block 404 of process 400, it can be determining whether the inputtext phrase includes a sensitive word of a predetermined list ofsensitive words. The sensitive word can be strongly associated with aparticular intent. The salience of the sensitive word can thus besignificant where a phrase that includes the sensitive word is likelyassociated with the particular intent. In some examples, the sensitiveword is a profane word.

At block 406 of process 400, a degree of semantic similarity between theinput text phrase and one or more exemplar text phrases can bedetermined in response to determining that the input text phrase doesnot include a sensitive word of a predetermined list of sensitive words.The degree of semantic similarity between the input text phrase and anexemplar text phrase of the one or more exemplar text phrases can bedetermined in a similar or identical manner as determining a degree ofsemantic similarity between the first text phrase and the second textphrase at blocks 304 through 316 of process 300, described above.Further, the exemplar text phrase can be similar or identical to thesecond text phrase at block 304 of process 300.

At block 408 of process 400, an exemplar text phrase that is mostsemantically similar to the input text phrase among the one or moreexemplar text phrases can be identified based on the determined degreeof semantic similarity between the input text phrase and the one or moreexemplar text phrases. In a specific example, the degree of semanticsimilarity can be based on the total semantic cost. It can be determinedthat a first exemplar text phrase is associated with the lowest totalsemantic cost among those of the plurality of exemplar text phrases.Therefore, in such an example, the first exemplar text phrase can beidentified as most semantically similar to the input text phrase amongthe one or more exemplar text phases.

At block 410 of process 400, a user intent associated with the receivedspeech input can be determined based on the degree of semanticsimilarity between the input text phrase and the one or more exemplartext phrases. Block 410 can be similar or identical to block 318 ofprocess 300.

In some examples, in response to determining at block 404 that the inputtext phrase includes a sensitive word of a predetermined list ofsensitive words, a user intent associated with the received speech inputcan be determined based on a predetermined intent associated with thesensitive word. In particular, the user intent can be determined to besimilar or identical to the predetermined intent associated with thesensitive word.

In other examples, in response to determining at block 404 that theinput text phrase does not include a sensitive word of a predeterminedlist of sensitive words, a user intent associated with the receivedspeech input can be determined based on a predetermined intentassociated with the exemplar text phrase that is most semanticallysimilar to the input text phrase at block 408.

At block 412 of process 400, one or more tasks associated with thereceived speech input can be determined based on the user intent. Block412 can be similar or identical to block 320 of process 300.

Although blocks 402 through 412 of process 400 are shown in a particularorder in FIG. 4, it should be appreciated that these blocks can beperformed in any order and that some blocks can be combined. Further,one or more blocks of process 400 can be optional and/or one or moreadditional blocks can be included.

It should be recognized that the terms “first word,” “second word,”“third word,” “fourth word,” “fifth word” and the like described hereincan, in some cases, refer to tokens that each represent a single word ora group of words that should be treated as a single unit. For instance,in one example, “first word” can be the single word “many”. In anotherexample, “first word” can be the group of words “a lot of.”

The various processes for exemplar-based natural language processingdescribed herein can be performed using a system implementing aclient-server model, and more specifically, a system capable ofimplementing a virtual assistant (e.g., system 500, described below). Inother examples, the processes for exemplar-based natural languageprocessing described herein can be performed using a stand-aloneelectronic device (e.g., user device 502, described below).

2. Salience of a Word

The salience of a word can represent the influence the word has over aphrase. A highly salient word can greatly affect the semantics of aphrase. Thus, inserting, deleting, or substituting a highly salient wordin a phrase can significantly change the meaning of the phrase.Conversely, a word with low salience does not greatly affect thesemantics of a phrase. Thus inserting, deleting, or substituting a wordwith low salience in a phrase may not significantly change the meaningof the phrase.

The salience of a word can be determined based on the frequency ofoccurrence of the word in a corpus of text. For example, the salience ofa word can be expressed by term frequency-inverse document frequency(tf-idf) or a variant thereof. In one example, a corpus of text caninclude multiple categories of text phrases that each includes amultiple text phrases. A category of text phrases can represent aparticular context of text phrases or a particular topic of textphrases. For example, a category of text phrases can include textphrases associated with a particular intent. The salience of a word canbe based on a proportion of the plurality of categories that include theword. This can be expressed as:

${{salience}(w)} = {1 - \frac{\left\{ {c \in {categories}} \middle| {w \in c} \right\} }{{categories}}}$

where salience(w) denotes a salience of a particular word, categoriesdenotes the various categories in the corpus, c denotes a particularcategory in categories, and w denotes the word. In a specific example,if there are 100 categories in a corpus and a first word appears in 99of the categories, the salience of the first word, salience(first word),can be equal to 1−(99/100)=0.01. Thus, words that appear in a largeproportion of categories in the corpus can have low salience while wordsthat appear in a small proportion of categories in the corpus can havehigh salience.

In other examples, the salience of a word can be determined based on afunction representing the indexing power of a word. For example, thesalience of a word can be determined based on the normalized entropy ofthe word in a corpus. In particular,

${{salience}(w)} = {1 - {\frac{1}{\log \; N}{\sum\limits_{c \in {categories}}{{p\left( c \middle| w \right)}\log \; {p\left( c \middle| w \right)}}}}}$

where N is the number of categories and p(c|w) is the probability that aword w is part of a phrase for the particular category c as opposed toother categories.

In yet other examples, the salience of a word can be arbitrarilydetermined. For example, the salience of a word in a predetermined listof sensitive words can be assigned an arbitrary value. In a specificexample, a predetermined list of sensitive words can include a profaneword and the salience of the profane word can be arbitrarily assigned ahigh salience.

3. Semantic Space, Semantic Similar, and Centroid Distance

The semantic similarity between two words (e.g., between third word 112and fourth word 114, described above in block 208) can be determinedusing a semantic space. The semantic space can be an n-dimensionalsemantic space that is based on distributional semantics. Each word canbe represented by a semantic position in the semantic space. Thesemantic position of a word can be expressed as a vector {right arrowover (v)}_(w). The semantics of words can be compared based on thesemantic distance between their vectors. For example, the semanticdistance between the vector of a third word and the vector of a fourthword can represent the semantic similarity between the third word andthe fourth word in the semantic space. In some examples, the semanticsimilarity between the third word and the fourth word in a semanticspace can refer to the semantic distance between the vector of the thirdword and the vector of the fourth word in the semantic space. Thesemantic distance between vectors can be determined by taking an innerproduct of the semantic vectors. For example, the semantic distance(e.g., semantic similarity) between word w₁ and word w₂ can bedetermined as follows:

similarity_(word)(w ₁ ,w ₂)={right arrow over (v)} _(w1) ·{right arrowover (v)} _(w2)

where {right arrow over (v)}_(w1) denotes the vector representing wordw₁ in the semantic space and {right arrow over (v)}_(w2) denotes thevector representing word w₂ in the semantic space.

FIG. 5 illustrates semantic space 500 according to various examples. Aplurality of points 502 are disposed in semantic space 500. Each pointrepresents a semantic position of a word in semantic space 500. Wordsassociated with points that are closer together in semantic space 500are more semantically similar. Conversely, words associated with pointsthat are further apart from each other are less semantically similar.For example, the semantic distance between the words “find” and “search”is less than the semantic distance between the words “find” and “shout.”Accordingly, the word “find” is more semantically similar to the word“search” than to the word “shout.”

Semantic space 500 can be derived from the distributions of words (e.g.,a corpus) in a large body of unannotated text. In some examples,semantic space 500 can be derived from a corpus that includes aplurality of text phrases where each text phrase of the plurality oftext phrases includes less than 150 characters. By using shorter textphrases to derive semantic space 500, semantic space 500 can be moresuitable for virtual assistant applications where input texts cantypically be short questions, requests, or statements that can be lessthan 150 characters.

A semantic space can also be used to determine the semantic similaritybetween text phrases. For example, the semantic similarity between afirst text phrase and a second text phrase can be represented by acentroid distance in a semantic space. The centroid distance can be thedistance between a centroid position of the first text phrase in thesemantic space and a centroid position of the second text phrase in thesemantic space. The centroid position of a text phrase can represent thesemantics of the text phrase in the semantic space. The centroidposition of a text phrase can be expressed as a vector {right arrow over(r)}(s) in the semantic space. For example, FIG. 6 illustrates centroidposition 602 of text phrase 604 in semantic space 600 according tovarious examples. Semantic space 600 can be similar or identical tosemantic space 500. Centroid position 602 of text phrase 604 can bedetermined based on a semantic position of one or more words of textphrase 602 in the semantic space.

As shown in FIG. 6, each word of text phrase 602 can be represented by asemantic position. For example, the word “stories” can be represented bysemantic position 606. In some examples, centroid position 602 can bedetermined by combining the vectors {right arrow over (v)}_(w) of thewords in text phrase 604. Further, in some examples, centroid position602 of text phrase 604 can be determined based on a salience of one ormore words of text phrase 604. For example, the vector {right arrow over(v)}_(w) of each word of text phrase 604 can be weighted by the salienceof the word and the weighted vectors salience(w)·{right arrow over(v)}_(w) can be combined to determine centroid position 602. Inparticular,

${\overset{\rightarrow}{r}(s)} = {\sum\limits_{w \in s}{{{salience}(w)} \cdot {\overset{\rightarrow}{v}}_{w}}}$

where {right arrow over (r)}(s) denotes centroid position 602 of textphrase 604, salience(w) denotes the salience of a word of text phrase604, {right arrow over (v)}_(w) the semantic position of a word of textphrase 604, s denotes text phrase 604, and w denotes a word of textphrase 604.

In some examples, the centroid distance between a centroid position of afirst text phrase in the semantic space and a centroid position of asecond text phrase in the semantic space can be determined by L̂2normalizing the centroid position of the first text phrase and thecentroid position of the second text phrase. For example:

${{similarity}_{centroid}\left( {s_{1},s_{2}} \right)} = \frac{{\overset{\rightarrow}{r}\left( s_{1} \right)} \cdot {\overset{\rightarrow}{r}\left( s_{2} \right)}}{{{\overset{\rightarrow}{r}\left( s_{1} \right)}}{{\overset{\rightarrow}{r}\left( s_{2} \right)}}}$

where similarity centroid(s₁, s₂) denotes the centroid distance betweenthe centroid position {right arrow over (r)}(s₁) of the first text phases₁ and the centroid position {right arrow over (r)}(s₂) of the secondtext phrase s₂.

4. System and Environment

FIG. 7 illustrates system 700 for carrying out various aspects ofexemplar-based natural language processing according to variousexamples. In some examples, system 700 can implement a virtualassistant. The terms “virtual assistant,” “digital assistant,”“intelligent automated assistant,” or “automatic digital assistant,” canrefer to any information processing system (e.g., system 700) that caninterpret natural language input in spoken and/or textual form to inferuser intent, and perform actions based on the inferred user intent.

The virtual assistant can be capable of processing natural languageinput. For example, virtual assistant can be capable of performingspeech recognition on a spoken input in order to obtain a textualrepresentation of the spoken input. The textual representation can beanalyzed to infer user intent. The virtual assistant can then act on theinferred user intent by performing one or more of the following:identifying a task flow with steps and parameters designed to accomplishthe inferred user intent; inputting specific requirements from theinferred user intent into the task flow; executing the task flow byinvoking programs, methods, services, APIs, or the like; and generatingoutput responses to the user in an audible (e.g., speech) and/or visualform.

An example of a virtual assistant is described in Applicants' U.S.Utility application Ser. No. 12/987,982 for “Intelligent AutomatedAssistant,” filed Jan. 10, 2011, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference

As shown in FIG. 7, in some examples, a virtual assistant can beimplemented according to a client-server model. The virtual assistantcan include a client-side portion executed on user device 702, and aserver-side portion executed on server system 710. User device 702 caninclude any electronic device, such as a mobile phone, tablet computer,portable media player, desktop computer, laptop computer, PDA,television, television set-top box, wearable electronic device, or thelike, and can communicate with server system 710 through one or morenetworks 708, which can include the Internet, an intranet, or any otherwired or wireless public or private network. A detailed description ofuser device 702 is provided below with reference to FIG. 8. Theclient-side portion executed on user device 702 can provide client-sidefunctionalities, such as user-facing input and output processing andcommunications with server system 710. Server system 710 can provideserver-side functionalities for any number of clients residing on arespective user device 702.

Server system 710 can include one or more virtual assistant servers 714.As shown in FIG. 7, virtual assistant server 714 includes memory 728,one or more processors 726, client-facing I/O interface 722, and I/Ointerface to external services 716. The various components of virtualassistant server 714 can be coupled together by one or morecommunication buses or signal lines. Memory 728, or thecomputer-readable storage media of memory 728, can include one or moreprocessing modules 718 and data and model storage 720. The one or moreprocessing modules 718 can include various programs and instructions.The one or more processors 726 can execute the programs and instructionsof the one or more processing modules 728 and read/write to/from dataand model storage 720. In the context of this document, a“non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” can be any medium thatcan contain or store the program for use by or in connection with theinstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

In some examples, the one or more processing modules 718 can includevarious programs and instructions for performing various aspects ofexemplar-based natural language processing (e.g., processes 200, 300, or400, described above). In some examples, the one or more processingmodules 718 can include a speech-to-text processing module, a naturallanguage processing module, a task flow processing module, and a serviceprocessing module. The speech-to-text processing module can includeinstructions for transcribing a speech utterance in an audio input. Thenatural language processing module can include instructions forinferring user intent from the transcribed speech utterance. Forexample, the natural language processing model can include variousinstructions for exemplar-based natural language processing (e.g.,processes 200, 300, or 400). The task flow processing module and theservice processing module can include instructions for identifying atask flow to accomplish the inferred user intent, inputting specificrequirements from the inferred user intent into the task flow, executingthe task flow, and outputting relevant responses to the speechutterance. For example, the task flow processing module and the serviceprocessing module can include instructions for performing one or moretask associated with the natural language input (e.g., blocks 224, 320,and 412, described above). Data and models 720 can include various userdata and models that can be accessed or referenced when performingvarious aspects of exemplar-based natural language processing. Forexample, data and models 720 can include speech models, language models,task flow models, and service models.

In some examples, virtual assistant server 714 can communicate withexternal services 724, such as telephony services, calendar services,information services, messaging services, navigation services, and thelike, through network(s) 708 for task completion or informationacquisition. The I/O interface to external services 716 can facilitatesuch communications.

Server system 710 can be implemented on one or more standalone dataprocessing devices or a distributed network of computers. In someexamples, server system 710 can employ various virtual devices and/orservices of third-party service providers (e.g., third-party cloudservice providers) to provide the underlying computing resources and/orinfrastructure resources of server system 710.

Although the functionality of the virtual assistant is shown in FIG. 7as including both a client-side portion and a server-side portion, insome examples, the functions of the assistant can be implemented as astandalone application installed on a user device (e.g., user device702). In addition, the division of functionalities between the clientand server portions of the virtual assistant can vary in differentexamples. For instance, in some examples, one or more processing modules718 and data and models 720 can be stored in the memory of user device702 to enable user device to perform a greater proportion or all of thefunctionalities associated with the virtual assistant. In otherexamples, the client executed on user device 702 can be a thin-clientthat provides only user-facing input and output processing functions,and delegates all other functionalities of the virtual assistant to abackend server.

5. User Device

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a user-device 702 according to variousexamples. As shown, user device 702 can include a memory interface 802,one or more processors 804, and a peripherals interface 806. The variouscomponents in user device 702 can be together coupled by one or morecommunication buses or signal lines. User device 702 can further includevarious sensors, subsystems, and peripheral devices that are coupled tothe peripherals interface 806. The sensors, subsystems, and peripheraldevices gather information and/or facilitate various functionalities ofuser device 702.

For example, user device 702 can include a motion sensor 810, a lightsensor 812, and a proximity sensor 814 coupled to peripherals interface806 to facilitate orientation, light, and proximity sensing functions.One or more other sensors 816, such as a positioning system (e.g., a GPSreceiver), a temperature sensor, a biometric sensor, a gyroscope, acompass, an accelerometer, and the like, are also connected toperipherals interface 806, to facilitate related functionalities.

In some examples, a camera subsystem 820 and an optical sensor 822 canbe utilized to facilitate camera functions, such as taking photographsand recording video clips. Communication functions can be facilitatedthrough one or more wired and/or wireless communication subsystems 824,which can include various communication ports, radio frequency receiversand transmitters, and/or optical (e.g., infrared) receivers andtransmitters. An audio subsystem 826 can be coupled to speakers 828 anda microphone 830 to facilitate audio-enabled functions, such as voicerecognition, music recognition, voice replication, digital recording,and telephony functions. For example, user-device 702 can receive speechinput (e.g., received speech input at block 402) via microphone 830.

In some examples, user device 702 can further include an I/O subsystem840 coupled to peripherals interface 806. I/O subsystem 840 can includea touch screen controller 842 and/or other input controller(s) 844.Touch-screen controller 842 can be coupled to a touch screen 846. Touchscreen 846 and the touch screen controller 842 can, for example, detectcontact and movement or break thereof using any of a plurality of touchsensitivity technologies, such as capacitive, resistive, infrared,surface acoustic wave technologies, proximity sensor arrays, and thelike. Other input controller(s) 844 can be coupled to otherinput/control devices 848, such as one or more buttons, rocker switches,keyboard, a thumb-wheel, an infrared port, a USB port, and/or a pointerdevice such as a stylus. In some examples, text input (e.g., block 202and 302) can be received via a text inputting interface displayed ontouch screen 846 or other input/control devices 848.

In some examples, user device 702 can further include a memory interface802 coupled to memory 850. Memory 850 can include any electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, a portable computer diskette (magnetic), a randomaccess memory (RAM) (magnetic), a read-only memory (ROM) (magnetic), anerasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) (magnetic), a portableoptical disc such as CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, or DVD-RW, or flashmemory such as compact flash cards, secured digital cards, USB memorydevices, memory sticks, and the like. In some examples, a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of memory 850 can be used to storeinstructions (e.g., for performing processes 200, 300, or 400, describedabove) for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system,processor-containing system, or other system that can fetch theinstructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or deviceand execute the instructions. In other examples, the instructions (e.g.,for performing process 200, 300, or 400, described above) can be storedon a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of server system710, or can be divided between the non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of memory 850 and the non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of server system 710.

In some examples, the memory 850 can store an operating system 852, acommunication module 854, a graphical user interface module 856, asensor processing module 858, a phone module 860, and applications 862.Operating system 852 can include instructions for handling basic systemservices and for performing hardware dependent tasks. Communicationmodule 854 can facilitate communicating with one or more additionaldevices, one or more computers and/or one or more servers. Graphicaluser interface module 856 can facilitate graphic user interfaceprocessing. Sensor processing module 858 can facilitate sensor relatedprocessing and functions. Phone module 860 can facilitate phone-relatedprocesses and functions. Application module 862 can facilitate variousfunctionalities of user applications, such as electronic-messaging, webbrowsing, media processing, navigation, imaging and/or other processesand functions.

As described herein, memory 850 can also store client-side virtualassistant instructions (e.g., in a virtual assistant client module 864)and various user data and models 866 to provide the client-sidefunctionalities of the virtual assistant. The virtual assistant clientmodule 864 can include modules, instructions, and programs forperforming various aspects of processes 200, 300, or 400 describedabove. In some cases, the instructions for performing various aspects ofprocess 100 can be stored in a separate module in memory 850. User dataand models 866 can include user-specific vocabulary data, preferencedata, and/or other data such as the user's electronic address book,to-do lists, shopping lists, and the like. In addition, user data andmodels 866 can include speech models, language models, task flow models,and service models.

In various examples, virtual assistant client module 864 can includeinstructions for accepting natural language input (e.g., speech and/ortext), touch input, and/or gestural input through various userinterfaces (e.g., I/O subsystem 840, audio subsystem 826, or the like)of user device 702. Virtual assistant client module 864 can also includeinstructions for providing output in audio (e.g., speech and/or musicoutput), visual, and/or tactile forms. For example, output can beprovided as voice, music, sound, alerts, text messages, menus, graphics,videos, animations, vibrations, and/or combinations of two or more ofthe above. During operation, user device 702 can communicate with thevirtual assistant server using communication subsystems 824 to performthe functionalities associated with the virtual assistant.

In various examples, memory 850 can include additional instructions orfewer instructions. Furthermore, various functions of user device 702can be implemented in hardware and/or in firmware, including in one ormore signal processing and/or application specific integrated circuits.

6. Electronic Device

FIG. 9 shows a functional block diagram of an electronic device 900configured in accordance with the principles of the various describedexamples. The functional blocks of the device can be, optionally,implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of hardware andsoftware to carry out the principles of the various described examples.It is understood by persons of skill in the art that the functionalblocks described in FIG. 9 can be, optionally, combined, or separatedinto sub-blocks to implement the principles of the various describedexamples. Therefore, the description herein optionally supports anypossible combination, separation, or further definition of thefunctional blocks described herein.

As shown in FIG. 9, electronic device 900 can include touch screendisplay unit 902 configured to display a user interface and to receivetouch input, and audio receiving unit 904 configured to receive speechinput. In some examples, electronic device 900 can include speaker unit906 configured to generate sound and text receiving unit 908 configuredto receive text. Electronic device 900 can further include processingunit 910 coupled to touch screen display unit 902 and audio receivingunit 904 (and, optionally, coupled to speaker unit 906 and text inputreceiving unit 908). In some examples, processing unit 910 can includereceiving unit 912, determining unit 914, and performing unit 916.

Processing unit 910 can be configured to receive a first text phrase(e.g., from text receiving unit 908 or touch screen display unit 902 andusing receiving unit 912). Processing unit 910 can be configured todetermine (e.g., using determining unit 914) whether editing the firsttext phrase to match a second text phrase requires one or more ofinserting a first word into the first text phrase, deleting a secondword from the first text phrase, and substituting a third word of thefirst text phrase with a fourth word. The second text phrase includesthe first word, the first text phrase includes the second word, and thesecond text phrase includes the fourth word. Processing unit 910 can beconfigured to determine (e.g., using determining unit 914) one or moreof an insertion cost, a deletion cost, and a substitution cost inresponse to determining that editing the first text phrase to match thesecond text phrase requires one or more of inserting the first word intothe first text phrase, deleting the second word from the first textphrase, and substituting the third word of the first text phrase withthe fourth word. The insertion cost is associated with inserting thefirst word into the first text phrase, the deletion cost is associatedwith deleting the second word from the first text phrase, and thesubstitution cost is associated with substituting the third word of thefirst text phrase with the fourth word. Processing unit 910 can beconfigured to determine (e.g., using determining unit 914), based on theone or more of the insertion cost, the deletion cost, and thesubstitution cost, a semantic edit distance between the first textphrase and the second text phrase in a semantic space. A degree ofsemantic similarity between the first text phrase and the second textphrase is based on the semantic edit distance.

In some examples, processing unit 910 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 914), based on the degree of semanticsimilarity between the first text phrase and the second text phrase, afirst intent associated with the first text phrase. In some examples,processing unit 910 can be configured to perform (e.g., using performingunit 914), based on the first intent, a task associated with the firsttext phrase.

In some examples, processing unit 910 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 914) the insertion cost associated withinserting the first word into the first text phrase in response todetermining that editing the first text phrase to match the second textphrase requires inserting the first word into the first text phrase. Theinsertion cost is determined based on a first predetermined semanticcost and a salience of the first word.

In some examples, processing unit 910 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 914) the deletion cost associated withdeleting the second word from the first text phrase in response todetermining that editing the first text phrase to match the second textphrase requires deleting the second word from the first text phrase. Thedeletion cost is determined based on a second predetermined semanticcost and a salience of the second word.

In some examples, processing unit 910 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 914) the substitution cost associated withsubstituting the third word of the first text phrase with the fourthword in response to determining that editing the first text phrase tomatch the second text phrase requires substituting the third word of thefirst text phrase with the fourth word. The substitution cost isdetermined based on a salience of the third word, a salience of thefourth word, a semantic similarity between the third word and the fourthword in the semantic space, a first predetermined semantic cost, and asecond predetermined semantic cost.

In some examples, the first predetermined semantic cost is higher thanthe second predetermined semantic cost.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on a frequencyof occurrence of the first word in a first corpus. In some examples, thesalience of the second word is based on a frequency of occurrence of thesecond word in the first corpus. In some examples, the salience of thethird word is based on a frequency of occurrence of the third word inthe first corpus. In some examples, the salience of the fourth word isbased on a frequency of occurrence of the fourth word in the firstcorpus.

In some examples, the first corpus comprises a plurality of categoriesthat includes a plurality of text phrases. The salience of the firstword is based on a proportion of the plurality of categories thatinclude the first word. The salience of the second word is based on aproportion of the plurality of categories that include the second word.The salience of the third word is based on a proportion of the pluralityof categories that include the third word. The salience of the fourthword is based on a proportion of the plurality of categories thatinclude the fourth word.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on anormalized entropy of the first word in a second corpus. The salience ofthe second word is based on a normalized entropy of the second word inthe second corpus. The salience of the third word is based on anormalized entropy of the third word in the second corpus. The salienceof the fourth word is based on a normalized entropy of the fourth wordin the second corpus.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on whether afirst predetermined list of sensitive words includes the first word. Thesalience of the second word is based on whether a second predeterminedlist of sensitive words includes the second word. The salience of thethird word is based on whether a third predetermined list of sensitivewords includes the third word. The salience of the fourth word is basedon whether a fourth predetermined list of sensitive words includes thefourth word.

In some examples, processing unit 910 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 914) a centroid distance between acentroid position of the first text phrase in the semantic space and acentroid position of the second text phrase in the semantic space. Thedegree of semantic similarity between the first text phrase and thesecond text phrase is based on the centroid distance.

In some example, the centroid position of the first text phrase isdetermined based on a semantic position of one or more words of thefirst text phrase in the semantic space and the centroid position of thesecond text phrase is determined based on a semantic position of one ormore words of the second text phrase in the semantic space.

In some examples, the centroid position of the first text phrase isdetermined based on a salience of one or more words of the first textphrase and the centroid position of the second text phrase is determinedbased on a salience of one or more words of the second text phrase.

In some examples, the degree of semantic similarity is based on a linearcombination of the semantic edit distance and the centroid distance.

In some examples, the degree of semantic similarity is based on whetherthe first text phrase includes a fifth word that the second text phrasedoes not include and whether a predetermined list of keywords includesthe fifth word.

In some examples, the semantic space is derived from a second corpusthat includes a plurality of text phrases, and wherein each text phraseof the plurality of text phrases includes less than 150 characters.

FIG. 10 shows a functional block diagram of an electronic device 900configured in accordance with the principles of the various describedexamples. The functional blocks of the device can be, optionally,implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of hardware andsoftware to carry out the principles of the various described examples.It is understood by persons of skill in the art that the functionalblocks described in FIG. 10 can be, optionally, combined, or separatedinto sub-blocks to implement the principles of the various describedexamples. Therefore, the description herein optionally supports anypossible combination, separation, or further definition of thefunctional blocks described herein.

As shown in FIG. 10, electronic device 1000 can include touch screendisplay unit 1002 configured to display a user interface and to receivetouch input, and audio receiving unit 1004 configured to receive speechinput. In some examples, electronic device 1000 can include speaker unit1006 configured to generate sound and text receiving unit 1008configured to receive text. Electronic device 1000 can further includeprocessing unit 1010 coupled to touch screen display unit 1002 and audioreceiving unit 1004 (and, optionally, coupled to speaker unit 1006 andtext input receiving unit 1008). In some examples, processing unit 1010can include receiving unit 1012, determining unit 1014, and performingunit 1016.

Processing unit 1010 can be configured to receive a first text phrase(e.g., from text receiving unit 1008 or touch screen display unit 1002and using receiving unit 1012). Processing unit 1010 can be configuredto determine (e.g., using determining unit 1014) one or more word-leveldifferences of the first text phrase with respect to a second textphrase. The one or more word-level differences can include one or moreof a first word-level difference comprising the second text phraseincluding a first word that does not correspond to any word of the firsttext phrase, a second word-level difference comprising the first textphrase including a second word that does not correspond to any word ofthe second text phrase, and a third word-level difference comprising thefirst text phrase including a third word that is different from acorresponding fourth word of the second text phrase. Processing unit1010 can be configured to determine (e.g., using determining unit 1014)a total semantic cost associated with the one or more word-leveldifferences based on one or more of a salience of the first word, asalience of the second word, a salience of the third word, a salience ofthe fourth word, and a semantic similarity between the third word andthe fourth word in a semantic space. A degree of semantic similaritybetween the first text phrase and the second text phrase is based on thetotal semantic cost.

In some examples, processing unit 1010 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1014), based on the degree of semanticsimilarity between the first text phrase and the second text phrase, afirst intent associated with the first text phrase. In some examples,processing unit 1010 can be configured to perform (e.g., usingperforming unit 1016), based on the first intent, a task associated withthe first text phrase.

In some examples, processing unit 1010 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1014), in response to determining that theone or more word-level differences include the first word-leveldifference, a first semantic cost associated with the first word-leveldifference based on a first predetermined semantic cost and the salienceof the first word. The total semantic cost includes the first semanticcost.

In some examples, processing unit 1010 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1014), in response to determining that theone or more word-level differences include the second word-leveldifference, a second semantic cost associated with the second word-leveldifference based on a second predetermined semantic cost and thesalience of the second word. The total semantic cost includes the secondsemantic cost.

In some examples, the first predetermined semantic cost is higher thanthe second predetermined semantic cost.

In some examples, processing unit 1010 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1014), in response to determining that theone or more word-level differences include the third word-leveldifference, a third semantic cost associated with the third word-leveldifference based on the salience of the third word, the salience of thefourth word, the semantic similarity between the third word and thefourth word, a first predetermined semantic cost, and a secondpredetermined semantic cost. The total semantic cost includes the thirdsemantic cost.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on a frequencyof occurrence of the first word in a first corpus. The salience of thesecond word is based on a frequency of occurrence of the second word inthe first corpus. The salience of the third word is based on a frequencyof occurrence of the third word in the first corpus. The salience of thefourth word is based on a frequency of occurrence of the fourth word inthe first corpus.

In some examples, the first corpus comprises a plurality of categoriesthat includes a plurality of text phrases. The salience of the firstword is based on a proportion of the plurality of categories thatinclude the first word. The salience of the second word is based on aproportion of the plurality of categories that include the second word.The salience of the third word is based on a proportion of the pluralityof categories that include the third word. The salience of the fourthword is based on a proportion of the plurality of categories thatinclude the fourth word.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on anormalized entropy of the first word in a second corpus. The salience ofthe second word is based on a normalized entropy of the second word inthe second corpus. The salience of the third word is based on anormalized entropy of the third word in the second corpus. The salienceof the fourth word is based on a normalized entropy of the fourth wordin the second corpus.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on whether afirst predetermined list of sensitive words includes the first word. Thesalience of the second word is based on whether a second predeterminedlist of sensitive words includes the second word. The salience of thethird word is based on whether a third predetermined list of sensitivewords includes the third word. The salience of the fourth word is basedon whether a fourth predetermined list of sensitive words includes thefourth word.

In some examples, processing unit 1010 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1014) a centroid distance between acentroid position of the first text phrase in the semantic space and acentroid position of the second text phrase in the semantic space. Thedegree of semantic similarity between the first text phrase and thesecond text phrase is based on the centroid distance.

In some examples, the centroid position of the first text phrase isdetermined based on a semantic position of one or more words of thefirst text phrase in the semantic space and the centroid position of thesecond text phrase is determined based on a semantic position of one ormore words of the second text phrase in the semantic space.

In some examples, the centroid position of the first text phrase isdetermined based on a salience of one or more words of the first textphrase and the centroid position of the second text phrase is determinedbased on a salience of one or more words of the second text phrase.

In some examples, the degree of semantic similarity is based on a linearcombination of the total semantic cost and the centroid distance.

In some examples, the degree of semantic similarity between the firsttext phrase and the second text phrase is based on whether the firsttext phrase includes a fifth word that the second text phrase does notinclude and whether a predetermined list of keywords includes the fifthword.

In some examples, the semantic space is derived from a third corpus thatincludes a plurality of text phrases, and wherein each text phrase ofthe plurality of text phrases includes less than 150 characters.

FIG. 11 shows a functional block diagram of an electronic device 900configured in accordance with the principles of the various describedexamples. The functional blocks of the device can be, optionally,implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of hardware andsoftware to carry out the principles of the various described examples.It is understood by persons of skill in the art that the functionalblocks described in FIG. 11 can be, optionally, combined, or separatedinto sub-blocks to implement the principles of the various describedexamples. Therefore, the description herein optionally supports anypossible combination, separation, or further definition of thefunctional blocks described herein.

As shown in FIG. 11, electronic device 1100 can include touch screendisplay unit 1102 configured to display a user interface and to receivetouch input, and audio receiving unit 1104 configured to receive speechinput. In some examples, electronic device 1100 can include speaker unit1106 configured to generate sound and text receiving unit 1108configured to receive text. Electronic device 1100 can further includeprocessing unit 1110 coupled to touch screen display unit 1102 and audioreceiving unit 1104 (and, optionally, coupled to speaker unit 1106 andtext input receiving unit 1108). In some examples, processing unit 1110can include receiving unit 1112, determining unit 1114, performing unit1116, and identifying unit 1118.

Processing unit 1110 can be configured to obtain an input text phrasefrom a received speech input (e.g., from audio receiving unit 1104 andusing obtaining unit 1112). Processing unit 1110 can be configured todetermine (e.g., using determining unit 1114) a degree of semanticsimilarity between the input text phrase and one or more exemplar textphrases. Determining a degree of semantic similarity between the inputtext phrase and an exemplar text phrase of the one or more exemplar textphrases can comprises determining one or more word-level differences ofthe input text phrase with respect to the exemplar text phrase.Processing unit 1110 can be configured to determine (e.g., usingdetermining unit 1114) one or more word-level differences of the inputtext phrase with respect to the exemplar text phrase. The one or moreword-level differences include one or more of a first word-leveldifference comprising the exemplar text phrase including a first wordthat does not correspond to any word of the input text phrase, a secondword-level difference comprising the input text phrase including asecond word that does not correspond to any word of the exemplar textphrase, and a third word-level difference comprising the input textphrase including a third word that is different from a correspondingfourth word of the exemplar text phrase. Processing unit 1110 can beconfigured to determine (e.g., using determining unit 1114) a totalsemantic cost associated with the one or more word-level differencesbased on one or more of a salience of the first word, a salience of thesecond word, a salience of the third word, a salience of the fourthword, and a semantic similarity between the third word and the fourthword in a semantic space. A degree of semantic similarity between theinput text phrase and the exemplar text phrase is based on the totalsemantic cost.

In some examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1114), based on the degree of semanticsimilarity between the input text phrase and the exemplar text phrase, auser intent associated with the received speech input. In some examples,processing unit 1110 can be configured to perform (e.g., usingperforming unit 1116), based on the user intent, a task associated withthe received speech input.

In some examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured to identify(e.g., using identifying unit 1118), based on the determined degree ofsemantic similarity, an exemplar text phrase that is most semanticallysimilar to the input text phrase among the one or more exemplar textphrases. In some examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured todetermine (e.g., using determining unit 1114) a user intent associatedwith the received speech input based on a predetermined intentassociated with the exemplar text phrase that is most semanticallysimilar to the input text phrase.

In some examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1114) whether the input text phraseincludes a sensitive word of a predetermined list of sensitive words. Insome examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1114), in response to determining that theinput text phrase includes a sensitive word of a predetermined list ofsensitive words, a user intent associated with the received speech inputbased on a predetermined intent associated with the sensitive word. Insome examples, the degree of semantic similarity between the input textphrase and the one or more exemplar text phrases is determined inresponse to determining that the input text phrase does not include asensitive word of a predetermined list of sensitive words.

In some examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1114), in response to determining that theone or more word-level differences include the first word-leveldifference, a first semantic cost associated with the first word-leveldifference based on a first predetermined semantic cost and the salienceof the first word. The total semantic cost can include the firstsemantic cost.

In some examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1114), in response to determining that theone or more word-level differences include the second word-leveldifference, determining a second semantic cost associated with thesecond word-level difference based on a second predetermined semanticcost and the salience of the second word. The total semantic cost caninclude the second semantic cost.

In some examples, the first predetermined semantic cost is higher thanthe second predetermined semantic cost.

In some examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1114), in response to determining that theone or more word-level differences include the third word-leveldifference, a third semantic cost associated with the third word-leveldifference based on the salience of the third word, the salience of thefourth word, the semantic similarity between the third word and thefourth word, a first predetermined semantic cost, and a secondpredetermined semantic cost. The total semantic cost can include thethird semantic cost.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on a frequencyof occurrence of the first word in a first corpus. The salience of thesecond word is based on a frequency of occurrence of the second word inthe first corpus. The salience of the third word is based on a frequencyof occurrence of the third word in the first corpus. The salience of thefourth word is based on a frequency of occurrence of the fourth word inthe first corpus.

In some examples, the first corpus comprises a plurality of categoriesthat includes a plurality of text phrases. The salience of the firstword is based on a proportion of the plurality of categories thatinclude the first word. The salience of the second word is based on aproportion of the plurality of categories that include the second word.The salience of the third word is based on a proportion of the pluralityof categories that include the third word. The salience of the fourthword is based on a proportion of the plurality of categories thatinclude the fourth word.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on anormalized entropy of the first word in a second corpus. The salience ofthe second word is based on a normalized entropy of the second word inthe second corpus. The salience of the third word is based on anormalized entropy of the third word in the second corpus. The salienceof the fourth word is based on a normalized entropy of the fourth wordin the second corpus.

In some examples, the salience of the first word is based on whether afirst predetermined list of sensitive words includes the first word. Thesalience of the second word is based on whether a second predeterminedlist of sensitive words includes the second word. The salience of thethird word is based on whether a third predetermined list of sensitivewords includes the third word. The salience of the fourth word is basedon whether a fourth predetermined list of sensitive words includes thefourth word.

In some examples, processing unit 1110 can be configured to determine(e.g., using determining unit 1114), a centroid distance between acentroid position of the input text phrase in the semantic space and acentroid position of the exemplar text phrase in the semantic space. Thedegree of semantic similarity between the input text phrase and theexemplar text phrase is based on the centroid distance.

In some examples, the centroid position of the input text phrase isdetermined based on a semantic position of one or more words of theinput text phrase in the semantic space and the centroid position of theexemplar text phrase is determined based on a semantic position of oneor more words of the exemplar text phrase in the semantic space.

In some examples, the centroid position of the input text phrase isdetermined based on a salience of one or more words of the input textphrase and the centroid position of the exemplar text phrase isdetermined based on a salience of one or more words of the exemplar textphrase.

In some examples, the degree of semantic similarity is based on a linearcombination of the total semantic cost and the centroid distance.

In some examples, the degree of semantic similarity between the inputtext phrase and the exemplar text phrase is based on whether the inputtext phrase includes a fifth word that the exemplar text phrase does notinclude and whether a predetermined list of keywords includes the fifthword.

In some examples, the semantic space is derived from a third corpus thatincludes a plurality of text phrases where each text phrase of theplurality of text phrases includes less than 150 characters.

Although examples have been fully described with reference to theaccompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes andmodifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art. Suchchanges and modifications are to be understood as being included withinthe scope of the various examples as defined by the appended claims.

In some cases, the systems, processes, and devices described above caninclude the gathering and use of data available from various sources toimprove the delivery to users of invitational content or any othercontent that may be of interest to them. The present disclosurecontemplates that in some instances, this gathered data may includepersonal information data that uniquely identifies or can be used tocontact or locate a specific person. Such personal information data caninclude demographic data, location-based data, telephone numbers, emailaddresses, home addresses, or any other identifying information.

The present disclosure recognizes that the use of such personalinformation data in connection with the systems, processes, and devicesdescribed above, can be used to the benefit of users. For example, thepersonal information data can be used to deliver targeted content thatis of greater interest to the user. Accordingly, use of such personalinformation data enables calculated control of the delivered content.Further, other uses for personal information data that benefit the userare also contemplated by the present disclosure.

The present disclosure further contemplates that the entitiesresponsible for the collection, analysis, disclosure, transfer, storage,or other use of such personal information data will comply withwell-established privacy policies and/or privacy practices. Inparticular, such entities should implement and consistently use privacypolicies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting orexceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining personalinformation data private and secure. For example, personal informationfrom users should be collected for legitimate and reasonable uses of theentity and not shared or sold outside of those legitimate uses. Further,such collection should occur only after receiving the informed consentof the users. Additionally, such entities would take any needed stepsfor safeguarding and securing access to such personal information dataand ensuring that others with access to the personal information dataadhere to their privacy policies and procedures. Further, such entitiescan subject themselves to evaluation by third parties to certify theiradherence to widely accepted privacy policies and practices.

Despite the foregoing, the present disclosure also contemplates examplesin which users selectively block the use of, or access to, personalinformation data. That is, the present disclosure contemplates thathardware and/or software elements can be provided to prevent or blockaccess to such personal information data. For example, in the case ofadvertisement delivery services, the systems and devices described abovecan be configured to allow users to select to “opt in” or “opt out” ofparticipation in the collection of personal information data duringregistration for services. In another example, users can select not toprovide location information for targeted content delivery services. Inyet another example, users can select to not provide precise locationinformation, but permit the transfer of location zone information.

Therefore, although the present disclosure broadly covers use ofpersonal information data to implement one or more various disclosedexamples, the present disclosure also contemplates that the variousexamples can also be implemented without the need for accessing suchpersonal information data. That is, the various examples disclosedherein are not rendered inoperable due to the lack of all or a portionof such personal information data. For example, content can be selectedand delivered to users by inferring preferences based on non-personalinformation data or a bare minimum amount of personal information, suchas the content being requested by the device associated with a user,other non-personal information available to the content deliveryservices, or publically available information.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for processing natural languagecomprising: at an electronic device: receiving a first text phrase;determining whether editing the first text phrase to match a second textphrase requires one or more of: inserting a first word into the firsttext phrase, wherein the second text phrase includes the first word;deleting a second word from the first text phrase; wherein the firsttext phrase includes the second word; and substituting a third word ofthe first text phrase with a fourth word, wherein the second text phraseincludes the fourth word; in response to determining that editing thefirst text phrase to match the second text phrase requires one or moreof inserting the first word into the first text phrase, deleting thesecond word from the first text phrase, and substituting the third wordof the first text phrase with the fourth word, determining one or moreof: an insertion cost associated with inserting the first word into thefirst text phrase; a deletion cost associated with deleting the secondword from the first text phrase; and a substitution cost associated withsubstituting the third word of the first text phrase with the fourthword; and determining, based on the one or more of the insertion cost,the deletion cost, and the substitution cost, a semantic edit distancebetween the first text phrase and the second text phrase in a semanticspace, wherein a degree of semantic similarity between the first textphrase and the second text phrase is based on the semantic editdistance.
 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:determining, based on the degree of semantic similarity between thefirst text phrase and the second text phrase, a first intent associatedwith the first text phrase; and performing, based on the first intent, atask associated with the first text phrase.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, wherein: the insertion cost associated with inserting the firstword into the first text phrase is determined in response to determiningthat editing the first text phrase to match the second text phraserequires inserting the first word into the first text phrase; and theinsertion cost is determined based on a first predetermined semanticcost and a salience of the first word.
 4. The method according to claim1, wherein: the deletion cost associated with deleting the second wordfrom the first text phrase is determined in response to determining thatediting the first text phrase to match the second text phrase requiresdeleting the second word from the first text phrase; and the deletioncost is determined based on a second predetermined semantic cost and asalience of the second word.
 5. The method according to claim 1,wherein: the substitution cost associated with substituting the thirdword of the first text phrase with the fourth word is determined inresponse to determining that editing the first text phrase to match thesecond text phrase requires substituting the third word of the firsttext phrase with the fourth word; and the substitution cost isdetermined based on a salience of the third word, a salience of thefourth word, a semantic similarity between the third word and the fourthword in the semantic space, a first predetermined semantic cost, and asecond predetermined semantic cost.
 6. The method according to claim 1,wherein: the insertion cost is determined based on a first predeterminedsemantic cost and a salience of the first word; the deletion cost isdetermined based on a second predetermined semantic cost and a salienceof the second word; and the first predetermined semantic cost is higherthan the second predetermined semantic cost.
 7. The method according toclaim 1, wherein: the insertion cost is determined based on a firstpredetermined semantic cost and a salience of the first word; thedeletion cost is determined based on a second predetermined semanticcost and a salience of the second word; and the substitution cost isdetermined based on a salience of the third word, a salience of thefourth word, a semantic similarity between the third word and the fourthword in the semantic space, the first predetermined semantic cost, andthe second predetermined semantic cost.
 8. The method according to claim7, wherein: the salience of the first word is based on a frequency ofoccurrence of the first word in a first corpus; the salience of thesecond word is based on a frequency of occurrence of the second word inthe first corpus; the salience of the third word is based on a frequencyof occurrence of the third word in the first corpus; and the salience ofthe fourth word is based on a frequency of occurrence of the fourth wordin the first corpus.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein thefirst corpus comprises a plurality of categories that includes aplurality of text phrases, and wherein: the salience of the first wordis based on a proportion of the plurality of categories that include thefirst word; the salience of the second word is based on a proportion ofthe plurality of categories that include the second word; the salienceof the third word is based on a proportion of the plurality ofcategories that include the third word; and the salience of the fourthword is based on a proportion of the plurality of categories thatinclude the fourth word.
 10. The method according to claim 7, wherein:the salience of the first word is based on a normalized entropy of thefirst word in a second corpus; the salience of the second word is basedon a normalized entropy of the second word in the second corpus; thesalience of the third word is based on a normalized entropy of the thirdword in the second corpus; and the salience of the fourth word is basedon a normalized entropy of the fourth word in the second corpus.
 11. Themethod according to claim 7, wherein: the salience of the first word isbased on whether a first predetermined list of sensitive words includesthe first word; the salience of the second word is based on whether asecond predetermined list of sensitive words includes the second word;the salience of the third word is based on whether a third predeterminedlist of sensitive words includes the third word; and the salience of thefourth word is based on whether a fourth predetermined list of sensitivewords includes the fourth word.
 12. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: determining a centroid distance between a centroidposition of the first text phrase in the semantic space and a centroidposition of the second text phrase in the semantic space, wherein thedegree of semantic similarity between the first text phrase and thesecond text phrase is based on the centroid distance.
 13. The methodaccording to claim 12, wherein the centroid position of the first textphrase is determined based on a semantic position of one or more wordsof the first text phrase in the semantic space and the centroid positionof the second text phrase is determined based on a semantic position ofone or more words of the second text phrase in the semantic space. 14.The method according to claim 12, wherein the centroid position of thefirst text phrase is determined based on a salience of one or more wordsof the first text phrase and the centroid position of the second textphrase is determined based on a salience of one or more words of thesecond text phrase.
 15. The method according to claim 12, wherein thedegree of semantic similarity is based on a linear combination of thesemantic edit distance and the centroid distance.
 16. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the degree of semantic similarity is basedon whether the first text phrase includes a fifth word that the secondtext phrase does not include and whether a predetermined list ofkeywords includes the fifth word.
 17. The method according to claim 1,wherein the semantic space is derived from a second corpus that includesa plurality of text phrases, and wherein each text phrase of theplurality of text phrases includes less than 150 characters.
 18. Amethod for processing natural language comprising: at an electronicdevice: receiving a first text phrase; determining one or moreword-level differences of the first text phrase with respect to a secondtext phrase, wherein the one or more word-level differences include oneor more of: a first word-level difference comprising the second textphrase including a first word that does not correspond to any word ofthe first text phrase; a second word-level difference comprising thefirst text phrase including a second word that does not correspond toany word of the second text phrase; and a third word-level differencecomprising the first text phrase including a third word that isdifferent from a corresponding fourth word of the second text phrase;and determining a total semantic cost associated with the one or moreword-level differences based on one or more of: a salience of the firstword; a salience of the second word; a salience of the third word; asalience of the fourth word; and a semantic similarity between the thirdword and the fourth word in a semantic space; wherein a degree ofsemantic similarity between the first text phrase and the second textphrase is based on the total semantic cost.
 19. The method according toclaim 18, further comprising: determining, based on the degree ofsemantic similarity between the first text phrase and the second textphrase, a first intent associated with the first text phrase; andperforming, based on the first intent, a task associated with the firsttext phrase.
 20. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumcomprising computer-executable instructions for causing a processor to:receive a first text phrase; determine whether editing the first textphrase to match a second text phrase requires one or more of: insert afirst word into the first text phrase, wherein the second text phraseincludes the first word; delete a second word from the first textphrase; wherein the first text phrase includes the second word; andsubstitute a third word of the first text phrase with a fourth word,wherein the second text phrase includes the fourth word; in response todetermining that editing the first text phrase to match the second textphrase requires one or more of inserting the first word into the firsttext phrase, deleting the second word from the first text phrase, andsubstituting the third word of the first text phrase with the fourthword, determining one or more of: an insertion cost associated withinserting the first word into the first text phrase; a deletion costassociated with deleting the second word from the first text phrase; anda substitution cost associated with substituting the third word of thefirst text phrase with the fourth word; and determine, based on the oneor more of the insertion cost, the deletion cost, and the substitutioncost, a semantic edit distance between the first text phrase and thesecond text phrase in a semantic space, wherein a degree of semanticsimilarity between the first text phrase and the second text phrase isbased on the semantic edit distance.
 21. An electronic devicecomprising: one or more processors; memory; and one or more programs,wherein the one or more program are stored in the memory and configuredof be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programsincluding instructions for: receiving a first text phrase; determiningwhether editing the first text phrase to match a second text phraserequires one or more of: inserting a first word into the first textphrase, wherein the second text phrase includes the first word; deletinga second word from the first text phrase; wherein the first text phraseincludes the second word; and substituting a third word of the firsttext phrase with a fourth word, wherein the second text phrase includesthe fourth word; in response to determining that editing the first textphrase to match the second text phrase requires one or more of insertingthe first word into the first text phrase, deleting the second word fromthe first text phrase, and substituting the third word of the first textphrase with the fourth word, determining one or more of: an insertioncost associated with inserting the first word into the first textphrase; a deletion cost associated with deleting the second word fromthe first text phrase; and a substitution cost associated withsubstituting the third word of the first text phrase with the fourthword; and determining, based on the one or more of the insertion cost,the deletion cost, and the substitution cost, a semantic edit distancebetween the first text phrase and the second text phrase in a semanticspace, wherein a degree of semantic similarity between the first textphrase and the second text phrase is based on the semantic editdistance.